Circolombia, the Colombian circus company, presented their new production Acelere (accelerate) in London with an explosive mixture of acrobatics, live music, colours and dance that causes the audience shortness of breath.

Acelere, which made its UK premiere at the Roundhouse on April 14th, celebrates the Colombian contrast and cultural diversity with twelve of its most talented young performers to the rhythm of Reggaeton’s catchy live songs, spectacular jumps, lights and lots of charisma that raise questions around the perspective that everyone takes in life in accordance to the dizzying fast society in which we live.

Circolombia, founded in 2006 in order to provide professional opportunities to young graduates of Circo Para todos (Circus for All) – the Colombian national circus school – had already presented in 2011 their debut Urban, commissioned by Roundhouse.

With the participation of seventeen graduates, the show left such an impact on the audience that it went to several cities around the world such as Madrid, Paris, New York, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro among others.

Circo para todos, began as a non-profit organisation created in 1995 when two circus artists, Felicity Simpson and Hector Fabio Cobo decided to establish a circus school in Cali, Colombia to support social and economical integration into society of disadvantaged children and youth.

Since then it has achieved great international institutional support such as the British National lottery Charity as well as other European institutions in Spain, Ireland, Holland and France.

Additionally the latter, which was the first country to contribute with funds to the project, created its French versionCirque pour tous to raise international funds.

The result exposed in Acelere, until May the 3rd, fills the stage with style and authenticity with a show consisting of a series of performances of impressive skills and defying gravity.

Jumps from a swing, hanging ropes and lights from the ceiling that allow the most poetic acrobatics, as if the artists would orbit into the space, all followed by dances capable of dislocating hips to the rhythm of the powerful singer’s voices and the words of the artists heard during their acrobatics, “quiet”, “up”, “I’m not afraid to take my decisions”, “I want to feel alive every day.”
Under the direction of Felicity Simpson and Renato Rocha, a Brazilian based in London, Acelere praises the idea of taking risks in life through a visual poetry that reaches its peak with Kiebre Duo‘s performance of straps, that won the silver medal at the world festival Cirque de Demain.

Likewise, Roundhouse has maintained for the last years a close relationship with the circus, as it is evidenced with their Roundhouse Street Circus Collective, composed of young people from 8 to 25 years old, from the north and east of London which performed What we do is what we love on Thursday April 16 before the main show.

It is certain that the circus – either by allowing to embrace “the feeling”, to follow your dreams and live the life to the fullest or as a vehicle to convey social values such as solidarity, responsibility and cooperation – rises and stands as a great ally when it comes to unify communities and spread positive messages.

Gerlin Jhon Rodriguez, one of the twelve artists, stated that performing in London ” is a way to share Colombian culture from another point of view, more positive to the one used by the news.”

Fun is assured.

The audience merges, almost inadvertently, its breathing with the acrobatics of the artists, sharing the same wild feeling of freedom.

“I feel my body totally different, totally free”, can be heard as one of the artists swings on a rope above the audience just before jumping into the void throwing a poignant question: “Do you want to fly?”.